Any questions/concerns for Friendly’s director of operations?

Tomorrow (Tuesday) I am meeting the Region Director of Operations for Friendly Ice Cream Corporation for lunch. This comes on the heels (or, should I say, drags since the post was last month?) of my posts about my disastrous experience. (The one about the smell and slow service is here. You can read about what they did with my credit card here.)

The Friendly’s corporate office got wind of the blog entries, and the RDO e-mailed offering to take me out for a super melt to talk about my experience, and how the situation was handled.

I accepted the offer to meet (and told him I will be paying for my own lunch). I plan to talk with him about some of the concerns many of you already mentioned (slow service in the restaurant and at the window, surly staff, long lines, etc.), but this is your chance to add anything else to the list.

Readers, if there is something (reasonable and relevant) you’d either like me to ask, and/or address with him, please share before noon tomorrow.

61 Responses

Not been in a long time, but the problems everyone in food service encounters is due to labor being the number one controllable expense and management worries more about the bottom line than their guests experiences. If the front of the house is nasty, reason to believe the back of the house is worse.

Given the comments here, maybe you should take him out for a drink after lunch. He’s going to need it.

In my experience restaurant people have really drunk the Kool-Aid and generally think not only is everything fine, but that everything is great. That their restaurant is God’s gift to the world. It’s a crazy mentality.

Here is a reality check.
The intermediate chains like Friendly’s that are trying to keep prices down are in the most trouble in our current economy, their concept cannot be done without
a. raising prices or
b. lowering their quality – i.e. hitting rock bottom.
Complaining about Friendly’s is almost comical. The “Friendly” place we remember from our childhood is long gone. All of the food is processed off site and cooked by minimum wage kids who could care less about food.

Teach your children the value of supporting locally owned, independent stores and restaurants. Stop at a pizza shop, diner or local cafe—most of them serve Ice Cream too! If the experience is not up to snuff, you will not have to contact the executive office, just ask to speak to an owner.

With so many restaurants closing these days, it amazes me that Friendly’s restaurants seem to weather the poor economy, no matter how bad they’ve gotten. One location in Schenectady finally closed, I was pleased to notice, because it was consistently bad. The location on Nott St. in Niskayuna has been going downhill for 20 years, which is a shame. It’s like the staff doesn’t know that they are in the customer service industry. Long waits, dirty tables, and slow service should result in no customers. It makes me miss the old Flavorland in that location, which in retrospect was pretty good. My favorite Friendly’s was the one on upper Union Street where Homestyle Pizza relocated. I spend many happy hours in that nice location. Sad to see such a longstanding restaurant chain decline.

Ric,
I agree with you, on raising your children on healthy foods, but we still must remember that they are kids, and we were once too.

We cook a lot in our house, and many different ethnic and unique dishes. My kids eat what’s put on the table, no special menu cause Johnnie does not like it; veggies and all. But once in a while you have to let kids enjoy what they find yummy. Everything is done with moderation. Congrats on NWB, hearing many positive comments.

But don’t get me started about local restaurants letting my beer freeze, wherever they store it, or wherever it came from on a truck. Won’t forget the day I asked a companion what was wrong with my beer (and his too), at a locally owned restaurant in Saratoga. “It froze”, he explained. I had noticed!

We don’t go to Friendly’s anymore. The last time I was at a Friendly’s (in East Greenbush)the employees were in the kitchen, which is right behind the wall, were yelling, cursing and fighting with each other. Very disconcerting. It was also dirty. Service was awful as the waitress was more interested in the fight going on. Never again.

Ric- You made great points, and I really can’t argue with anything thing you said. (Hanging my head in shame.) New World Home Cooking was one of my son’s first restaurant visits, and he has enjoyed brunch at New World Bistro. To the parents reading here–The high chairs at New World Cafe are clean and don’t require disinfecting from an uptight mom like me. You won’t be greeted with a scowl when bringing your children in for brunch. (Not sure about dinner because I haven’t tried that w/my child.)

We love many of our locally owned restaurants, but we still enjoy Friendly’s. (Sorry, Ric.)